The following events are promotional local love for independent film/producer/awesome gal Kristin Tieche newest film: The Spinster. If you haven’t already done so, show your support.
We need more women in film, behind the scenes and making films available to the masses. We need more, more! Also, many thanks for a few of you who have pledged on the collaboration I’m doing with her, a limited edition poster (with a pledge of $100) ←wow awesome!

If you are in San Francisco/Oakland area save the dates, and meet some fellow nice locals:

Come see exclusive clips from the film (the famous BAR SCENE)
Meet cast & crew
Music by DJ Precious Cargo | Photography by Jillian Betterly | Food by MamakSF
Drinks from Cerruti Cellars and Numi Tea
Silent Auction includes Nooworks, Po Campo, Hotel Carlton, Animal House SF and more!Sliding scale donations taken at the door for Kickstarter rewards!

We wrap this post, with a message from the filmmaker herself:

We are truly blessed with such a generous community coming out to support this film. Thank you for consideration during our March fundraising campaign. Just a few more pledges and we’ll get there!
-Kristin Tieche

I didn’t want to wait another month to share these, from Halloween last year. I really was taking my sweet time…
Well, this is from the Friday before Halloween, which for 2010 I believe fell on a Saturday. It was the first year I had my custom way ahead of time. Diana and I went vintage shopping to a gem down the peninsula, we headed to the fabulous vintage store Empire in Palo Alto.
Here we are with our friend Jasmine. She was so nice to send me the photos. I think I forgot my camera that day.

The vintage Halloween queens. All of our clothing is from the Empire vintage store. We were decked out.

ahoy! dominating the untammed lions in every bike lane in this handsome town – hazaaaa!

the heartbreaker club.

Here are is a little bit more about the details of my make-up and bird earrings. I love how much fun those earrings are and the bowtie I have continued to use it for other customes since I got it. The polka-dotted blouse is also vintage as well as the top hat.

chirp chirp. these red lovebirds kept me updated on all kinds of gossip.

+ + + + +
Did someone say custome — because I have more alter-egos that I can count!
You know I already can’t wait for Halloween this year!! I do live in San Francisco so, any excuse to dress up and play with make-up is pretty much the norm.
xxo♥meli

San Francisco Bike Party #1, the birth of a party. Took place in San Francisco, this past Friday (This will be celebrated on every 1st Fridays!).
Theme: ♥Happy birthday!!

The startThe ride started at the ballpark right at 3rd and King. It was quite conmemmorative, since SF was the city to win the baseball word series last year, right. Continuing with celebration, I arrived shortly before 8PM, the starting time and there were already hundreds of bikes and people all around the corner. Did someone say party+bikes+fun?! We were there.

+all the bikey ladiessssss are ready to par-teeeeey

double troubles

with the Klaw

more ladiessss! with Amber y Lauryn

I was so happy to run into Chrisitine, I had previously met her briefly a few months ago, and she is a sweetheart! (far right)

Hola Christine! here with Duby + Ayuchi. So fun =)

bikes everywhere!! about 500 were estimated at the starting point.

tweeting update headquarters. Nio y ‘Deep

I decided to let the emotion and commotion sit-in for a few weeks, before I wrote my personal view. I do solo rides and group rides. I personally like to hang in the back of it all and chill out. I don’t like big crowds, but I love being part of big rides, if that makes sense.

flat! Before I even thought about what is what or where the route was headed (which was available previously, and posted on the SFBP various page links) I got a flat. Gaahh!!–really?! But thankfully, V+W and their tire tools+skills, these guys were on to spot to help and Frenchie’s rear wheel was fixed and off we went, back on the road in a matter of minutes. Gracias!

Embarcadero We caught up right after everyone had arrived to the Embarcadero/North point break area. People were dancing, I ran into a bunch of friends, more people dancing. So far the energy was nothing but positive, everyone seemed in a great mood and good times were to be had. And more dancing. Friday nights are the new disco.

dance dance

Twin towers lens club. **you must be taller than 6ft +red hair to be in their paparazzi crew…

Happy birthday! a present for you

Sweeny y Dan

Ghiradelli square / climbing Polk street. After riding the Fisherman’s wharf and Ghiradelli area near the water, I was way in the back-back of the bus, so I didn’t even know a little stop happened there. I knew the map, so I was thinking there was just a little bottleneck going on. DN has an awesome shot of that [here]

Up we go

It was funny to me that someone around the internet called this hill between the stretch of Polk/North point and Polk/Pacific street “gruelling.” Yeah, they are a little steep, but come on, hundreds of cyclist bike this route any given time.
However proud moment we ALL made those hills. Yes. People and SF with bikes ROCK!

Pac heights via Pacific street. Crossing pacific heights was pretty nice. Pacific street was very quiet, and the only complications that I saw during this time, were cars getting caught in the middle of the ride wanting to make a left or right turn, but each encounter, was a peaceful one. I didn’t see anyone go crazy or annoyed by the full-use of lane by hundreds of cyclists during that stretch. Mind you that area is rather quiet, and very little traffic on a Friday night, with maybe the exception of crossing Van Ness.

ran into Alice and her pretty red rivi

suuuup

everyone’s birthday

sup

party!

pac heights

this duo was singing-along the whole way. so cute.

Alta Park How can I describe the big smile in everyone’s faces. Once everyone got to this view point, everyone seemed to at least forget that we had ridden up some steep hills. So awesome, the fog was barely there, the city lights were shinnning and the playground turned everyone into a big bike happy kid. So beautiful.

Laurel heights into the Inner Richmond This stretch was really quiet. Riding westbound on Sacramento > Arguello > Clement, was SOOO smooth and nice. We encounter almost no traffic.

Ran into KT

A reflective ButterBill in Laurel Heights

this guy and his skull. the mouth moved up and down, was so funny. He got it in disneyland =)

santa rides year-round

are we there yet?! all ‘what if‘ questions kick in where an xtracycle is there. We’ve seen it all.

cargo cargo

FTW!

Golden Gate Park We had a little rest stop at Golden gate park. The night’s temperature had dropped to maybe the mid-30°sF and I think many people started to head home or to catch public transportation (BART or CalTrain) after this spot.

Jill and her bubblelands =)

San José is in the house. The homies from the south of the Bay. That kid kicked butt the whole ride!

Dial M for marky marks…

did someone say whiskey?!

Heading to Civic center via Pandhandle/Fulton This was pretty easy as most of the route is downhill. Either was getting later and the ride started to thin out just a bit, but the fun continued. We ended the ride at Civic Center where closer to midnight, a patrolling cop approached us and asked “are you having fun or what”. Was a little odd but he was actually really nice. He then nicely asked we keep the sound down and he moved on. Cool.

on Oak.

Ran into Aimee and Dave, representing the East Bay.

downhill. We are almost there.

And the ride peacefully ends at Civic Center.

It was close to midnight.

Given that my personal experience during the first bike party presented me with 2 flats -one before even starting the ride, and one on my way home-
Some of these are pretty obvious, but can’t hurt ti just throw them in. Here are some basic tips, according to me:
++ Bring at least one spare tube for your bike and maybe your flat kit/tools as well.
++ Some cash for Muni/BART in case of a mechanical issue, or need to take public transportation home.
++ Keep in mind the ride is later in the evening, so plan ahead in case you need to stop by a store, or get some snacks (I’m always thinking hungry-emergencies and carry some granola bars just in case)
++ Drink water!!
++ Bring your blinkie lights
++ A charged phone (ahem… I’m really bad at this stuff)
++ I also carry some band aids and stuff, mainly because I know I’m clumsy, and I will probably be the first one to use them. Sometimes even bringin tissue could aid someone’s sneazing attacks.
++ Wear comfortable clothes and it doesn’t hurt to layer up. You can always start to take stuff off as you go.
++ Enjoy yourself!!

The SF Bike Party #1 was successful and peaceful, and that is my opinion. I cannot wait to see what it will grow into, and to continue to demonstrate that groups that come together with an idea of an event, brainstorm, organize and peacefully promote something as beautiful as it is to just enjoy oneself on a ride and ride as a bike community, potentially becomes an amazingly fun monthly event.

Speaking of amazing, this event and its organizers are in **need** of volunteers. This couldn’t happen without a little help from everyone, now head to the volunteer survey the SFBP recently posted. The mission statement, “how we ride”, forums and other info, can be found through their website:
// sfbikeparty and facebook page